Sleepy Hollow: "The Lesser Key of Solomon"Review

Share.

It's a tea party and you're all invited.

By Jim McMahon

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

You could say that Sleepy Hollow is absurd. You could say that’s it’s goofy, that there are massive plot holes, that one of the lead characters has been wearing the same clothes for more than 200 years and must be pretty ripe by now. Those would all be perfectly valid arguments – in fact, you’d be right - I can’t even try to refute those points. But the fact is I just don’t care, because I’m having a blast watching this insane show.

Just look at where things stand right now: police captain lets his best officer partner up with a possible crazy dude claiming to be from the Revolutionary War? Great, way to be part of the solution and not the problem, Captain Irving. Ichabod comes up with the Boston Tea Party two years after he beheaded the horseman and began hibernating? Um… yeah, that’s big swing-and-a-miss. Still don’t care.

And the reason I don’t is because of how enthusiastically the show has embraced its outlandishness. Aside from some quick comic asides, no time is wasted showing any toll this sudden time-jump has taken on Ichabod, and there’s been virtually no moping about his witch wife being trapped… wherever she is, exactly. But the villains remain dangerous and intimidating, and the stakes are still high. I’m a bit amazed that the extraordinarily difficult tone the pilot set between horror, mystery and comedy has been maintained, but all concerned have done such a good job at it that I hardly notice anymore.

So the showdown with Jenny winds up getting settled quickly, and after some light sibling bickering she’s tentatively a part of their emerging Scooby Gang (and brings quite the badass resume with her). I also like the reveal that Sheriff Corbin took both Mills girls under his wing, and I know I’m a broken record with this, but: Clancy Brown, you are missed! Bring him back from the dead, surely the rules of this series allows that!

Captain Irving gets to show off his skills a bit in this episode as well, as he breaks down the bizarre, gory crime scene in the bar and quickly deduces that it’s not the same killer they saw in the pilot, since the wounds aren’t cauterized. I’m sure we’ll get to know him more, but for now that served as a nice signifier that the captain is no slouch himself.

Meanwhile Ichabod’s heartfelt conversation with Yolanda the NorthStar rep was the comic highlight, along with the Mills girls being impressed that he was behind the Boston Tea Party (“You’ve coined a far more festive name”). As for the scarier side of things, our heroes wrap up the hour with the name of their current Big Bad: Moloch. And the dude seems to have a lot of followers, which should keep things interesting for weeks to come. As long as things stay crazy, I’m all for it.